Professionalising Language Teaching and Language Education in Ghana

This paper reports findings of a nationwide survey that investigated the professional backgrounds of language teachers in Ghana. Even though language teaching/learning is entrenched in the school curriculum from the early years of school, the production of positive language learning outcomes in Ghana’s basic education system has been a challenge for many years. Every year, WAEC ¹ ’s chief examiner’s report links students’ poor performance in national examinations to lack of language competence, e.g., inability to understand instructional rubrics. While earlier researchers attribute the problem to factors including inadequacies in language-in-education policy (Ansah 2014) and lack of TLMs (Ampiah 2008), findings from this study suggests that the use of non-professional language teachers in teaching approved language subjects ² in basic schools is a potential major factor in producing poor performance in education in general and language education in particular in Ghana - while 50.4% had qualification in the language(s) they taught, 0% of lower primary (KG-P3) teachers (who lay the foundation of language education in the country) had qualification in language studies. The paper, therefore, concludes that there is a relationship between the use of professional/non-professional language teachers and education in general, and language education in particular (in Ghana).